Welfare Mothers

Three months into Maryland's welfare reform project, thousands of women have passively accepted their reduced monthly checks, making little effort to comply with new requirements that their children go to school and visit doctors regularly.On Jan. 1, the state began reducing welfare checks by $25 per infraction per month when women fail to meet the school and medical requirements. According to surveys, 99 percent of the recipients know about the the new rules. And while most have complied with the regulations, about 10 percent have not, and state officials are stumped.

The Dundalk woman charged this week with child abuse in the death of her 3-year-old son was accused of endangering the boy in Ohio in 2001, resulting in him spending several months in foster care, the woman's stepdaughter said last night. Denise Marie Lechner, 25, of the 7800 block of St. Fabian Lane, was charged with child endangerment in August 2001, after Roy Lechner Jr., then 5 months old, was hospitalized with bruises on his face because he had stopped breathing, according to Teresa Harford, 32, of Canton, Ohio.

It's a simple idea that's had a sweeping impact on welfare reform: Remove the financial incentive and welfare mothers won't have more children.It began in 1992 when New Jersey enacted a "family cap" law barring additional payments to welfare mothers who have children 10 or more months after they apply for welfare.Based on reports of the law's success, several states -- including Maryland -- implemented similar laws. The family cap also became an important part of the congressional push for welfare reform.

WELFARE "REFORM" is on the congressional agenda again, with the Senate poised to vote on proposed legislation reauthorizing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). First enacted in 1996, TANF in its second version has already passed the House. Although this round of welfare legislation has generated far less attention than the 1996 reform effort, there is at least one disturbing similarity: The voices of low-income Americans are once again missing from public deliberations about welfare.

Hundreds of women, many of them tired of being stigmatized as freeloaders, turned out at the state's first-ever conference for welfare mothers, hungry for tips on how to get off the dole.But they had to settle for seminars on everything from money management to family planning.The organizers of "New Choices Day," as the event was billed, were careful not to advertise it as a job fair. Nevertheless, it attracted scores of women who clearly hoped to learn how to find work.The state, which had expected perhaps 300 inquiries, received more than 1,500.

By John W. Frece and John W. Frece,Annapolis Bureau | February 24, 1992

ANNAPOLIS -- Maryland's biggest welfare program supports dependent children. But a Baltimore County legislator thinks there should be limits on how many children the state should support.Del. Richard Rynd, a Pikesville Democrat, is pushing a bill that would deny, or at least limit, additional benefits to women who have additional children after they're on welfare.It would cut in half the extra payment mothers now receive under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program when they give birth to another child.

President Bush and Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton advocate "workfare" -- requiring welfare recipients to get education or job training if they want to receive benefits. But the story of the Human Development Institute, a small job-training company located in Baltimore, shows the difficulty of implementing such a policy under Washington's conflicting regulatory structure.HDI did what it promised -- it made workers out of welfare mothers. Seventy-five percent of the 1,500 women who passed through HDI's training sessions found jobs.

By John W. Frece and John W. Frece,Annapolis Bureau | February 24, 1992

ANNAPOLIS -- Maryland's biggest welfare program supports dependent children. But a Baltimore County legislator thinks there should be limits on how many children the state should support.Del. Richard Rynd, a Pikesville Democrat, is pushing a bill that would deny, or at least limit, additional benefits to women who have additional children after they're on welfare.It would cut in half the extra payment mothers now receive under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program when they give birth to another child.

IN APRIL, the Urban Institute brought together 350 policy makers, welfare officials and others familiar with the welfare system and attempts at reform. Here are some excerpts from the conference report:"While conference participants disagreed on whether the welfare problem is worse today than in 1988, when the last round of federal welfare reform legislation was enacted, there was agreement that, regardless of objective measures of welfare's effectiveness, public sentiment has gradually grown more negative and has manifested itself in a call for reform."

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who has never met a domestic federal program he would not double, hit upon what seemed like a great idea for advertising the virtues of federal welfare programs.He invited Whoopi Goldberg -- one of America's most famous former welfare mothers -- to the Capitol to make a pitch for Aid to Families With Dependent Children.Not for Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Goldberg the usual staid style of congressional testimony. Instead, Whoopi put on a Phil Donahue-style show complete with cordless mike and invited guests.

EVERYONE WHO has watched television or read the paper in the last few days has been told repeatedly how liberal and outspoken was the late Sen. Paul Wellstone. We have been reminded of his controversial votes in 1996 on welfare reform and, more recently, his "no" vote on a congressional resolution authorizing an attack on Iraq. Stories have abounded of his combative and fiery rhetoric. We have witnessed political allies and foes praise his principled behavior as a U.S. senator. Even President Bush had a kind word.

BOSTON -- Do you remember when it was dangerous to describe a mother at home as "not working"? The original card-carrying members of the 24/7 work world rebelled at being publicly treated as if child-raising was doing nothing. You still risk bodily harm if you turn to the mother of two at a suburban dinner party and ask, "What do you do?" If one mom at soccer practice inquires whether another has a job, she's likely to start another cycle in the mommy wars. The only politically correct slogan is: "Every mother is a working mother."

IT HAS BEEN six months since Wisconsin's Tommy G. Thompson left the governor's job, where he burnished his reputation as the architect of welfare reform, to be the secretary of Health and Human Services. He met recently with journalists at the Casey Journalism Center at the University of Maryland to answer questions. This Q&A was edited by Bonnie Miller Rubin of the Chicago Tribune. What made you first decide to take such an aggressive stand on welfare? Because a lot of people were writing stories about how generous Wisconsin was when it came to benefits, that we were paying twice as much as what a welfare recipient would get in Chicago.

As a former welfare mother who now works full time, Jasmine Gunthorpe has mixed feelings about a Maryland state Senate proposal that aims to put welfare clients to work within two years.On one hand, she feels the refreshing winds of change blowing down some of the outmoded traditions of the welfare system -- requirements, she says, that forced women on assistance to "live double lives" and relinquish control over their destinies.On the other hand -- from experience -- Ms. Gunthorpe wonders where all the jobs will come from.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who has never met a domestic federal program he would not double, hit upon what seemed like a great idea for advertising the virtues of federal welfare programs.He invited Whoopi Goldberg -- one of America's most famous former welfare mothers -- to the Capitol to make a pitch for Aid to Families With Dependent Children.Not for Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Goldberg the usual staid style of congressional testimony. Instead, Whoopi put on a Phil Donahue-style show complete with cordless mike and invited guests.

THE Clinton administration is making a grand show of touring the country and holding public hearings about "welfare reform."Women should be on guard.Johnnie Tillmon, leader of the National Welfare Rights Organization in the 1960s, used to call the welfare system "The Man" because, she said, it ruled women's lives.Unfortunately, the term still fits. Men are the welfare "experts," and the system they have designed is increasingly abusive of poor women struggling to raise children.For 20 years, a long line of male policy wonks have been complaining that welfare "dependency" is America's major problem.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer has proposed to make Maryland one of the toughest states in the nation in its willingness to limit benefits to welfare mothers.The centerpiece of his reform package, submitted this week to the General Assembly, is a controversial and relatively untested proposal not to increase payments when a welfare recipient has an additional child.The so-called "family cap," once vehemently opposed by Mr. Schaefer, is now used only in New Jersey.Another Schaefer proposal is a variation on "time-limited" welfare -- the approach favored by President Clinton Tuesday night -- in which benefits would end altogether for recipients who refuse to look for a job or do community service.

It's a simple idea that's had a sweeping impact on welfare reform: Remove the financial incentive and welfare mothers won't have more children.It began in 1992 when New Jersey enacted a "family cap" law barring additional payments to welfare mothers who have children 10 or more months after they apply for welfare.Based on reports of the law's success, several states -- including Maryland -- implemented similar laws. The family cap also became an important part of the congressional push for welfare reform.

By John B. O'Donnell and John B. O'Donnell,Washington Bureau of The Sun | May 16, 1995

WASHINGTON -- Outlining what will be the foundation for the Senate's welfare plan, Sen. Bob Packwood sidestepped the House's most contentious prohibitions.Mr. Packwood's plan would leave to the states the decision on whether to ban payments to teen mothers and legal aliens. He would end, however, the guarantee that anyone who qualifies for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the nation's main welfare program, can collect benefits.The Oregon Republican was unwilling to offer any assurances that the Republican version of welfare makes life better for the poor.